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Benghazi hospital receives 14 bodies killed execution-style

Libya's pro-government forces patrol a rural area on the outskirts of the eastern coastal city of Benghazi, April 19, 2016. (AFP)

The Benghazi Medical Center in Libya's second city said Friday it had received the bodies of over a dozen people killed execution-style.

The 14 unidentified bodies were found Thursday and brought to the hospital in Benghazi by members of the Red Crescent, said a doctor at the facility.

"The bodies bear shots to the head which could mean they were executed," said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Security officials in Benghazi have made no comment on the matter.

For more than two years now, Benghazi has been the scene of fierce clashes between forces loyal to the internationally-recognized parliament and militant groups including the Takfiri Daesh terrorists. The fighting has left hundreds of people dead.

The doctor in Benghazi said the bodies were found in areas under the control of General Khalifa Haftar, whose loyal forces have retaken several districts in the city in recent months.

Meanwhile, Martin Kobler, the United Nations special representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), said the killings amounted to "war crime."

The UN envoy said he was "utterly shocked and dismayed by the summary execution of a number of people in Benghazi."

"This is a war crime," he said in a message posted on Twitter.

Libya has been grappling with violence and political uncertainty since the oil-rich country’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and later killed in 2011, when NATO and some of its Arab allies intervened militarily in the country.